Steve DeAngelo

Here’s a sampling of some of the reviews pegged to “Weed Wars,” the new Discovery Channel reality series about Oakland’s Harborside Health Center, a medical marijuana dispensary:

— “In most ways “Weed Wars” is an average reality show in the mold of “Dog the Bounty Hunter” or “Pawn Stars,” depicting a family business conducted on or just past the border of polite society. … But “Weed Wars” is also influenced by a long tradition of stoner humor, from Cheech and Chong to Bill and Ted to Harold and Kumar. While the producers take pains to present the business as legal (at least in California), honest and hygienic … they acknowledge viewers’ suspicions regarding things like the credibility of those tens of thousands of “patients” and their conditions. — Mike Hale, New York Times.

— “Most reality shows about workplaces feature relatively normal people trying to appear colorful and eccentric while handling trivial or manufactured crises. “Weed Wars” features colorful and eccentric people trying to appear relatively normal while handling real crises. That alone would put the show at the top of its genre. Add to that its depiction of the reality behind what to most people is a serious but abstract issue: medical marijuana. The result is one of the rare workplace shows that are actually worth watching.” — Tom Conroy, Media Life.

— “Once the viewer adjusts to the notion that marijuana here is as legal as a Snickers bar, the rest becomes a fairly straightforward small-business drama.” — David Hinckley, New York Daily News.

— “Part activist, part hard-nosed businessman, (Steve) DeAngelo’s evangelical fervor for cannabis comes off as simultaneously genuine and self-serving. — David Knowles, The Hollywood Reporter (Who calls the show “illuminating” and “unique”).

— “Whatever triumphant feeling it initially evokes, “Weed Wars” drags as the lackadaisical attitudes of both the suppliers and the customers begin to grate on a viewer’s nerves. Ever been in a room where everyone’s high but you? That’s this show.” — Hank Stuever, Washington Post.

Chuck Braverman, executive producer for “Weed Wars” (premiering 10 p.m. tonight, Discovery), insists he did not set out to make a “message film,” claiming that the reality series about the business of medical marijuana does not have a pro or con slant “one way or another.” But does he think it has the power to change minds? Absolutely.

After all, shooting the show over a six-month period at Oakland’s Harborside Health Center certainly reshaped his opinions.

“I’m very cynical, and going in, I had a built-in prejudice (against medical marijuana) that a lot of middle-aged or older people might have,” says Braverman, who said he can count on one hand how many times he’s smoked pot in the past 25 years. “But I came away thinking that there is some legitimacy here. It changed my mind.”

Upon arriving at Harborside in January, Braverman was convinced that a lot of people were going there “just to get high.” But as he spent more time in the state’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, he came to believe that a “much larger percentage of the patients there were really in need of the medicine.” Braverman said that some of the most compelling segments in “Weed Wars” are tied to before-and-after patient stories.

“I think they’re going to shock and surprise a lot of viewers,” he said, referring specifically to a 67-year-old suffering from high blood pressure and anxiety, who had never smoked marijuana in his life, and a child with severe epilepsy. (He went out of his way to avoid providing any spoilers).

Braverman’s production company was approached by Discovery in Sept. 2010 and the original plan was to do a documentary on several Northern California medical marijuana facilities. But upon meeting Steve DeAngelo at Harborside, he was so impressed with the center and its charismatic co-founder, that he decided to narrow his focus.

We’ll have to wait until November for the premiere of “Weed Wars,” the Discovery Channel reality series about Oakland’s Harborside Health Center, the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the country. But critics at the summer press tour in Beverly Hills got a brief sneak peek of the show and met a few of the Harborside regulars who will appear in it.

Steve DeAngleo, founder and executive director of Harborside, said he had been approached by several filmmakers interested in the subject before deciding to go with LA-based Braverman Productions, which is producing the show for Discovery.

“Our number one concern was making sure that we would just be portrayed as we really are because we are confident that if we are portrayed as who we are and what we do in our everyday lives, that the American people are going to come to support our cause,” DeAngelo said. “We chose (them) because they showed us that they were going to actually do that, that. We were never asked to do setups or argue with each other or just, you know, do anything other than be who we are. … We are very grateful for this opportunity to bring our message to the American people.”

Steve’s brother, Andrew, also part of the Harborside management team, said viewers will learn about the inner workings of the facility, but will also meet the people behind it.

“It’s character driven,” he said. “Obviously, the cannabis is sort of the glue that holds all of the characters together. But you are going to meet dozens of patients in the program. You are going to meet all of our families: our wives, our girlfriends, kids, grandkids. You know, it’s a family story.”